LOS ANGELES, USA – Two Filipinos – Jeremy Marinas and Bruce Concepcion – are among the key talents behind the fight scenes and stunts in John Wick: Chapter 4, which are being hailed as “dazzling,” “breathtaking,” and some of the best in 21^st century cinema.

Jeremy, the fight coordinator of the supposedly final installment of Keanu Reeves’ blockbuster franchise, is credited for being one of the chief minds behind the bravura climactic scene. Keanu’s weary, black-suited hunted assassin must ascend a 222-step staircase to the Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Paris for a crucial duel at sunrise.

But on his way to the top, Wick has to battle a seemingly endless army of henchmen sent by his adversary, the Marquis (Bill Skarsgard). Fortunately, Donnie Yen’s Caine, a blind assassin, shows up to help Wick battle the goons who are out in full force to kill our protagonist to make sure he does not reach Sacre-Coeur.

It’s probably the most spectacular staircase action scene I’ve seen in cinema. Just when Wick is about to reach the summit, having survived an array of hitmen hellbent on stopping him, he is sent hurtling all the way down back to the first of the 222 steps.

Esther Zuckerman wrote in a New York Times piece devoted to this sequence: “The plan was to make it a ‘whole John Wick metaphor,’ [Chad] Stahelski said in a phone interview, where the hero beats up people and then gets beaten up and has to start all over again.”

Intentional humor, even the Looney Tunes kind, has been evoked by film critics about this memorable staircase set piece.

Chad Stahelski, the movie series’ director, was a stuntman himself, so he’s a master at staging stunning fight scenes.

In the New York Times article, Jeremy recounted his reaction when Chad first told him his idea of an action sequence at Sacre-Coeur’s famed staircase: “It’s like, of course that’s what you want. You want 100 guys falling down the stairs and you want me to make every reaction and fall different. Of course you do. It was like we were just another day at work.”

The 33-year-old Filipino American with more than 60 film and television credits said that Keanu used a blend of his character’s “gun fu,” judo, and jujitsu. He also told the Times: “We all know how hard it is just to walk up stairs when we don’t want to. Just to think about how well Keanu — not John Wick — Keanu was able to do shooting upwards while stepping. It’s hard enough to be a marksman on flat ground.”

Jeremy, whose early credits include being the stunt double in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo and Michelangelo), The Wolverine, and the TV series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, said in another interview he gave to The Credits: “Chad always wants to give a disadvantage to the hero, and the big prize is at the top of the stairs, so John Wick has to make it up there.”

“When you look at it at face value, there are no barricades and it is a big gunfight, but people forget how hard it is to walk up or down stairs eating a churro, let alone a guy shooting at you moving side to side. It was a whole new playing field for us.”

“If anything didn’t fit with the story or purpose, we didn’t put it in. That’s why I think the flow of the scene ultimately works.”

Also according to the Times, the action sequence was shot only in seven nights, remarkable since it’s a complex set piece. About 35 stunt people were involved, with some of the guys playing various henchmen who are killed by Wick several times on the screen.

Keanu, known for being a gracious man, reportedly gave each of the 35 stunt folks a personalized t-shirt listing the number of times they were killed by Wick in the movie. IndieWire wrote that some of the stunt actors died more than 20 times, while one was felled by Wick five or six times in that soon-to-be-classic staircase fight scene.

Other breathtaking fight scenes in Chapter 4 involve Donnie, Hiroyuki Sanada (Shimazu), and Rina Sawayama (Aikira), the latter two playing father and daughter.

On Donnie’s Caine planting everyday gadgets like motion detectors in strategic places to detect the location of his foes, Jeremy told The Credits: “We came up with the idea that Caine would use something almost like echolocation. I worked on the television series See [starring Jason Momoa, Apple TV], where they did a lot of tapping on the ground.”

“We thought any blind action star is always using their cane to tap, so we wanted to extend his walking stick into Caine’s hearing to free up his hands to shoot and fight as he needs to.”

On coming up with the battle styles of Hiroyuki and Rina’s characters, Jeremy said to The Credits: “We had a huge pop star in Rina who could dance, so we wanted to lean in on that strength. Then there’s this idea that she may have learned all her fundamentals from her father, but her father is a lot older and more efficient when he moves.”

“He shows that experience level. She picks up the slack in youth and grittiness and he keeps his head a little more straight, navigating with an experience that doesn’t take as many steps as she does.”

There is also a long battle scene that takes place on several floors of a huge Berlin dance club, ending in water, that involves Wick and Killa, played by Scott Adkins (coping with the challenge of fighting in a fat suit and then in water).

Jeremy was quoted by The Credits on Scott: “He is a bruiser with nice high kicks, and he can hold his own against John Wick. It is not easy to do what Scott did in the water, especially in a fat suit, and be able to project that much personality through all those prosthetics. It was cool to watch Chad develop that with him.”

All these scenes required many experienced stunt people, which Jeremy, who also worked on John Wick: Chapter 2, acknowledged in his The Credits interview: “I want to give a shout-out to the other stunt teams involved, the Japanese team with choreographer Koji Kawamoto, Laurent Demianoff, the French coordinator and his team, and all the German, Bulgarian, and Jordanian teams that made the action in this movie come alive.”

Jeremy, who moved from San Jose, California to Los Angeles, recounted how his passion for martial arts began to Hyperfly: “Like every other late ’80s early ’90s baby, I really got mesmerized watching Ninja Turtles and Bruce Lee. My father saw my passion at the young age of four and decided to sign me up for karate lessons after witnessing me teach myself a tornado kick and spin hook kick.”

On how he started in Hollywood: “My lifelong idol, Jon Valera [another Filipino stunt and fight coordinator], from the NASKA sport martial arts circuit recruited me into our team at 87Eleven Action Design [a noted company founded by Chad and David Leitch]. He saw me fight opposite a friend, in my friend’s audition tape. It wasn’t even my audition!”

The Fil-Am’s filmography has grown long, and it includes: xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Birds of Prey, Gemini Man, Venom, and Captain America: Civil War.

Hyperfly also quoted him on what he credits his success to: “The most important qualities to my success I would say are mental awareness and the sheer will to never give up. That’s it. Nothing special.”

The Pinoy’s next projects include John Woo’s Silent Night (as stunt coordinator) and Jason Momoa’s TV mini-series, Chief of War.

Jeremy Marinas, Bruce Concepcion, Dave Camarillo, and Li Qiang got special wrap gifts from Keanu during a dinner in Paris, where another unforgettable action sequence involving moving cars around the Arc de Triomphe was shot. Keanu surprised the four fight and stunt performers with personalized Rolex Submariner watches.

Both Fil-Ams posted photos of their valuable timepieces on their respective Instagram pages. Each watch was inscribed.

Bruce worked as a fight team member and stunt performer in both John Wick 3 and 4. From his first credits in Awaken, A Teacher’s Obsession, Power Rangers, and The Fate of the Furious, Bruce went on to more films, including Birds of Prey, Mulan, The Matrix Resurrections, and The Gray Man.

Bruce is working next on Kung Fu Panda 4. – Rappler.com